The Summer Palace

Early Sunday morning I set out with my host parents to the "Yi He Yuan," Summer Palace. Once the summer residence of the Qing Dynasty Emperors, this large park is now open to the public. It is a major tourist attraction, as well as being popular with the local population. Host mom and dad have year-long passes and go there often to exercise. Sunday morning I joined host dad in his run, and then we explored for a while. The day was absolutely beautiful, as were the surroundings. The Summer Palace is an oasis of green in a concrete city, and it proudly displays the rich cultural history that is fast being replaced by high rises elsewhere in Beijing. A huge man-made lake is surrounded by century-old willow trees and walking paths, and a Buddhist temple sits on the hill made by the excavation of the lake. Ornate marble bridges span smaller corners of the lake. Part of the park is a canal-street modeled after a city in Southern China--a Chinese version of Venice in miniature. All of the buildings are traditional Chinese architecture, and I was delighted to discover the Chinese version of gargoyles guarding the eaves of many of these buildings. The host parents and I wandered through an outside corridor containing hundreds of paintings that depict scenes from Chinese legends. Once again, I was stopped by a Chinese tourist who wanted a picture with me. Hehehe. The host parents got a laugh out of this as well. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the morning.